After a .22 round went thru the washer (my fault for once), we tried it out & it wouldn't go bang. That made me wonder about all the wet guns I've seen in movies that work just fine after being dunked.

I know there are waterproof guns, but I'm wondering about the everyday sort of gun. For how long can a loaded gun (on average) be underwater and still work?

been a long time since i had this training courticy of uncle sam's camping club...IIRC...a quick dunking should not affect the ammo...the gun might not function well, and make sure the barrel is not full of water or mud...bad..real bad..things happen when that happens.if the ammo is going to be submerged, intentionally, or accidently, there are ways to waterproof it. this usually means applying a thin coat of clear fingernail polish, parafine, or beeswax to the joint where the slug and the casing join...it's time consuming and labor intensive..and unreliable.the pros who do these things on a regular basis(seals, and other special forses) have specalized fittings for their weapons and ammo pouches for under water ops. don't know if they are available for civilian purchase. best idea is to leave your weapon on shore when you go skinny dipping.

I watched a couple u-tube videos last summer where they actually fired a couple different pistols, under water, inside a glass tank like an aquarium. I didn't realize you could even do this, but both pistols (1 autoloader, 1 revolver) fired just fine. The bullets didn't go far, but they still blew the heck out of the end of the tank

What they were trying to do was show the difference between where the gases created by the explosion of the powder go in the two types of pistols. IIRC it was to explain the lower cylinder pressures created in a revolver vs an auto loading pistol.

I expect you could find the videos on youtube by searching underwater pistol or some such.

I've never had a problem with ammo that just got wet. Soaking it long enough to go through a wash cycle in the washer, especially with detergent, which makes the water wetter, is further than I'd want to push my luck.

Thanks guys! With some of the stuff I've seen in movies, I suspect that the most extreme gun & ammo soakings are works of fiction - like the revolvers that have a dozen rounds.

The most recent movie I saw with a gun getting wet, it was in a puddle for maybe 2 minutes - 3 at the most (it was an exciting part as Robert Redford was trying to strangle the bad guy so I didn't time it). So that wouldn't have been far-fetched.

Do I treat Glocks like I treat my lawn mowers? No, I treat them worse. I treat my defensive weapons like my fire extinguishers and smoke detector - annual maintenance and I expect them to work when needed

Firing a gun with water in the barrel, however, is usually not a good thing. Some guns can handle it (Glock, for example), can - and centerfires will fire under water. But it is not recommended.

ISTR seeing a training film in Basic that said that, if my M16 ended up submerged for some reason, I should pull the charging handle back enough to unseat the round in the chamber, so that any water in the barrel could drain out.

American parachutists...devils in baggy pants...are less than 100 meters from my outpost line. I can't sleep at night; they pop up from nowhere and we never know when or how they will strike next. Seems like the black-hearted devils are everywhere....